The University of South-Eastern Norway (USN) is a comprehensive Norwegian university with approximately 1,800 staff, 19,000 students, and eight campuses across the region. Its academic profile is organised around four faculties covering Health, Education, Engineering, and Business. USN maintains strong links with regional organisations and industry through programmes such as Business Bachelor and Industry Master, which combine academic study with part-time professional work and practical experience. The DC4Democracy team brings extensive expertise in digitalisation of the public sector, democracy and civic participation, education and teaching methodologies, and crisis management, supported by experience in both national and international research and innovation projects.

Within DC4Democracy, the Digitalisation Management research group and the Centre for Crisis Management at the University of South-Eastern Norway contribute expertise in information systems, digital transformation, democracy, education, and crisis management. The team has extensive experience in national and international projects, including initiatives funded through the Norwegian Research Council (NRC), Erasmus+, EEA Grants, and Horizon Europe.

Relevant Project Experience
1. PostLocal – Digital Local Democracy: Development and evaluation of digital tools and methods supporting local democratic participation.
2. GoDemo – Teaching Democracy and Human Rights: Development of approaches and resources for teaching democracy and human rights.
3. Smart-MLA – Smart Grid: Research on user adoption and evaluation, as well as the development of relevant business models.
4. OptForEU – Forest Decision Support System: Expertise in user adoption and evaluation, co-creation, and business model development.
5. ATLAS – AI in Teaching: Development of use cases, testing, and training focused on the use of artificial intelligence in education.
6. TTCM – Online Crisis Management: Development of an online crisis management exercise model and supporting system.

Through this combination of research expertise and practical project experience, the USN team contributes to the development, testing, evaluation, and adoption of digital solutions and educational approaches within the DC4Democracy project.